


she just lost it (and we're left watching)

by youngerdrgrey



Category: Queen Sugar (TV)
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 03:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11888748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngerdrgrey/pseuds/youngerdrgrey
Summary: Remy talks like he’s offering the sagest of advice, but Micah doesn’t need platitudes or quotes for his instagram captions.so,Micah and Remy are both at the mill opening, both witnesses to the epic Charley Bordelon breakdown of September 2016, and both left waiting for her to return to the main room.





	she just lost it (and we're left watching)

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write a nice scene where Micah and Remy interact solo, and it went places I wasn't expecting. Is Micah okay? idts
> 
> (takes place during 2x06, _Line of Our Elders_ )

 

.

.

Micah steps up to Remy. He keeps his strides even, and his face as neutral as possible. The reporter’s on the other side of the room, probably pestering his mom into telling more than she wants to, but at least that means the reporter won’t notice Micah and Remy talking and read into it. Remy’s not officially a part of anything. He’s a consultant who sometimes maybe keeps his mom company when she’s lonely. He’s the rebound guy who fits into their story like they’re a bad Nicholas Sparks novel or something. (You know, the ones where the first guy the girl meets after her abusive or awful boyfriend leaves is somehow the next great love of her life. It’s a cliché, not their reality. Remy’s nice and all, but it’s not like Remy’s her forever.)

“Hey.” Micah should probably feel bad for looking at it all like that, but he’s sort of been trained to think that way. To analyze moments for their worth and their potential, and the main potential that Remy has is a transitional business one. He can help Charley get this mill business on solid ground, and he can help her work through some of her anxieties and doubts that Davis brought back into her life. She’s always been super obsessed with perfection, so she’ll probably think that her feigned lack of perfection led to Davis’ affairs. Like, if she’d only been better at X, Y, and Z, then Davis wouldn’t have ever stepped out on her. Kind of like how sometimes Micah thinks that maybe he could’ve changed his dad’s mind. Like, he could’ve shown his dad how important their family was, or he could’ve helped bring his parents together instead of taking money from his dad when he knew his mom wanted him to earn money and get a job and stuff. But every single show ever that has divorced parents tells the kid that it’s not their fault that the parents get divorced. It’s the parents’ fault. So it’s Davis’ fault for cheating. And maybe his mom could have held on a little longer, but that’s her decision to make. And if she wants to goof around with the consultant, then fine. She can do that.

Remy blinks too many times. “Micah, hey.” His voice comes more out of his head than his chest. “You need something?”

Micah shakes his head. “I was wondering…. Do these kind of things really happen often?” If they do, then Micah can search for ways to mitigate it. How to stop chokes and keep grinding easy so his mom doesn’t ruin her manicure and lose it every time they start up the machines.

Remy’s head sort of teeters from one side to the other. “When there’s a lot of pressure, a lot of cane going in and not a lot coming back out, chokes happen. Just means you need to take the time to work through it.”

So, yes. That’s the answer. Micah can’t keep the edge out of his voice when he asks, “Do you always talk like that?” Remy talks like he’s offering the sagest of advice, but Micah doesn’t need platitudes or quotes for his instagram captions. “Just all full of double meanings?”

“I can be long-winded, yes.” He grins though, like he sees it as a good thing.

"Maybe you’re just used to reading into things.”

“I am in AP classes so,” Micah shrugs when he says it. He’s in lit classes that literally require him to overanalyze everything, and his mom’s one of the most well thought out and practical people he’s ever met, so of course he hears things one way and processes them another. And it’s not even like Remy’s helping with an answer like that. That doesn’t alleviate any tension. That doesn’t suddenly make the fact that this happened okay. If it just happens, then how do they stop it from happening again? Do they grind the cane slower? Do they send some kind of solution through the machines so the mulch doesn’t get stuck? How do they fix it?

Remy turns so he fully faces Micah. “This business doesn’t have a lot of absolutes. Sometimes, chokes happen. We just have to be quick to react.”

His mom was quick to react. She sprinted out of this room without more than a glance around at her guests. She was gone, and by the time Micah could find her and catch up to her, she was practically elbows deep in the grinder. It was like…. When the news came out about his dad, and that stupid video of Davis and Milena in the hotel hallway hit the internet, everybody was looking at them. They picked sides so quick. Either they hated Davis, or they just wanted to watch Charley and Micah process it. And his mom’s way of processing was storming onto the court and pushing his dad around, but Micah? He hadn’t moved. He hadn’t even lowered his phone after watching, so it was still looping on his screen when security dragged his mom, kicking and screaming off the court. And everyone around him seemed to remember he was there at the same time. Their eyes jumping from Davis on the court to Micah, in the middle of a crowd, with no one around to explain him to what the hell was going on. And, yeah, this is different. This time her meltdown’s private. This time nobody else in the world has to know that his mom’s not the strong, amazing person she pretends to be. But he knows. He sees. And what kind of son is he if he doesn’t do anything to help her? Last time, he let her break down and hide out in her room and they missed getting to say goodbye to Grandpa Ernest because he didn’t move quick enough. He didn’t help. So this time, he’s figuring something out, and he’s keeping his mom safe.

Micah sets his jaw. “Cool. We’ll be quick then. Next time.” He rolls his shoulders back and pushes a smile forward. He’s not as good at it as his mom is, so he can feel where his lips crack and strain around his teeth. And his eyes can’t brighten up as fast, and his neck’s probably too tense for it to seem real. But he’s working on it. How to hold himself together so nobody knows that he’s doing it.

Remy seems to notice it. He says, “Micah—“

But Micah doesn’t need more platitudes. “I’m gonna get a refill.” He doesn’t even have a drink in his hand, but he walks away before Remy can question it. And Remy doesn’t follow him either.

On the other side of the room, Charley’s got a better version of that fake smile on. Hers shines. Hers goes deep enough to show off her canine teeth and the hard parts of her eyes serve as reminders for the reporter — she might be refined, but everyone has their breaking points. Everyone’s got something to protect. 

He’s gonna figure out how to help his mom. With or without anybody else’s help. He’s gonna make it right.

.

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**Author's Note:**

> micah's sixteen and he's going through some shit. someone help him. please.


End file.
